Your kiss is soft violence, a cry of defiance
A sudden thief in the night
Observing love, lust, and the human condition with a blend of passion and detachment, Soft Vein—Justin Chamberlain’s electronic-music brainchild—delivers a sound steeped in striking contrasts. Drawing from darkwave, industrial, EBM, and electro-pop, Chamberlain explores the push and pull of romance and cynicism, nostalgia and modernity, warmth and cold. It’s music that aches with the sweetness of desire while bearing the sting of longing, loneliness, and loss.
Soft Vein steps boldly into the visual spotlight with their latest single and first-ever music video for Gray Space, the standout single from their upcoming album Through Blinds, set to release on January 17, 2025, via Artoffact Records.
Cascading synthesizers and ethereal guitars hum with sentimentality, while hypnotic rhythms pulse with a mechanical heartbeat. Metallic percussion clangs and strange sonic textures scrape through the spaces, evoking both obsolescence and futurism. It’s a soundscape that frames Chamberlain’s sensual, intimate vocals—the soft murmur of a narrator gazing through blinds, lost in observation, yearning for what lies just out of reach. Soft Vein turns detachment into art, painting longing with both warmth and sharp, metallic clarity.
Directed, filmed, and edited by German photographer and videographer Luan Sandkühler, Gray Space takes a minimalist yet striking approach, shot entirely on a single digital handicam during Soft Vein’s recent European tour supporting Twin Tribes.
Sandkühler bottles Soft Vein’s raw spirit with a keen eye for chaos and charm, stitching together candid offstage clips with electrifying moments from their set at the Cold Hearted Festival in Bochum, Germany. Lynchian strobe lights flash like erratic heartbeats, heightening the track’s peculiar urgency and sense of unease. The video feels less like a polished product and more like a grungy tour diary, as if the camera itself were a road-weary bandmate, drenched in sweat and swaying to the music.
Its lo-fi allure dances between vulnerability and ferocity, capturing both the quiet introspection of backstage moments and the stormy energy of the stage. The result reflects the emotional rawness Soft Vein promises to explore on Through Blinds—an album steeped in longing and laced with the heat of reckless passion. The video is a wild, flickering glimpse into the beautiful chaos of a band on the rise.
“Luan’s approach to this video felt similar to how I approached recording this album – letting simplicity and creativity guide the process without overthinking or overcomplicating things,” says Chamberlain. “Limitations are important, I respect that process a lot. She created something very intimate and beautiful, with just a digital camcorder and a handheld flash, that looks and feels to me exactly how the song looked in my head. It’s my first music video and it captured a really important moment for me, being on my first tour of Europe and everything. It’s very special.”
Watch the video below (take heed if you have light sensitivity, there are strobes)
Soft Vein formed in 2022, breaking into the Los Angeles darkwave scene with a pair of singles, Giveuptheghost and Violentia, that quickly garnered a cult following. By late 2023, the buzz paid off as Soft Vein signed to Artoffact Records and released Pressed in Glass, a debut album that set the tone for their brooding, industrial-tinged sound.
After a whirlwind of headline shows, festival appearances, and support slots, Soft Vein returned to the studio with a fresh perspective. Their sophomore album, Through Blinds, trades the icy detachment of its predecessor for a sound steeped in warmth, longing, and sultry imagination. Inspired by loneliness and introspection—his own and that of others—Chamberlain infuses this record with what he calls “nostalgic futurism,” an alchemy of dark romanticism and shimmering fantasy. The result smolders with heat, desire, and the irresistible pull of the unknown.
Through Blinds is out everywhere on January 17th, 2025, via Artoffact Records. Pre-order the album here.
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